Dear friends,
Today I write to you with a prayer on my heart: that God made known to us in Jesus Christ and poured out into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit might spring forth, in a deep and an authentic PEACE, at the core of each of our lives. That PEACE, which passes all understanding, comes to us through a sense of gravity…a knowing that roots us in a hope and a love that transcends our circumstances, both personal and collective. With coronavirus still on the rise in many places, we’re now also in the midst of emotionally charged public discourse on issues of race and policing, as our markets vacillate. And with all of the external factors at play, disrupting our rhythms of life and threatening our PEACE, we still have our day to day realties that come with their own challenges. We still have family dynamics to tend with, we still have existential questions, and we still have our unresolved hurts that prevent us from being fully alive to the abundant light and love available to us in this life.
Questions of COVID-19, systemic racism, and police reform aside: we need to care for ourselves in order to face the world…let alone, to embrace the gift of life. We need to pay attention to our own breath. And as Christians, I’d like to believe that we can initiate a response to the world’s problems through the simple act of our breathing. To inhale the social Zeitgeist: in all its anxious, uncertain, and erratic flavor…and to exhale back into the atmosphere: a faith, a hope, and a LOVE…is itself, an act of social praxis. Like a light upon a hill, we can allow the hope that is in us as people of faith to shine, when (and perhaps, only when) we tend to our inner worlds. And so, we start with our breath. When we calm down and quiet the pulsing dialogue from the fear-based and oppositional portion of our reptilian brains, we enable ourselves to rest in the faculties of our higher minds. In this way: by loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves, we act like living ‘air filters’ in this season of distress, taking in the toxic atmosphere…refining it with the PEACE of our Lord…and putting something qualitatively better back out into the world. Indeed, we are graced as Christians to reconstitute the narratives that we receive from the outside world, in light of what we know of God made incarnate in Jesus Christ. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, we rest in the potential for this healing re-orientation each and every time we worship together.
To that end: it does indeed appear that we will be physically together again (though only in small groups of 25) beginning next Sunday, June 21st. Thanks to the dedicated work of Michelle and our Vestry, we’ve prepared a detailed re-launch plan for our health and safety protocols that will be reviewed with Bishop Audrey in the coming week. We believe that we are “right sized” to offer up socially distanced Sunday services to our 8:00 and 10:15 congregations, while continuing to provide virtual worship through the integration of livestreaming on YouTube Live. To clarify what this means: beginning on the 21st, people will be able to attend our 10:15 service in real-time from the safety and comfort of home. There is no pressure to return to church if you have any concerns over health and safety, and it is our hope that we will be able to use livestreaming as a permanent fixture to increase our reach and to more faithfully engage the work of evangelism as a parish.
While there will be very real limitations on how we gather for the foreseeable future, we are well-positioned to use the opportunities thrust upon us by COVID-19 to generate a model for engaging our wider community as a twenty-first century church in the years to come. We will hug again…but even sooner…we will break bread together! Please be on the lookout for communications from Michelle next Wednesday with our formal plan for return.
With great enthusiasm and with humble appreciation,
Father Rick+
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St. Edward’s Episcopal Church is inviting you to Evening Prayer TONIGHT!
DATE: Friday. June 12, 2020
TIME: 7:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86327105082
Meeting ID: 863 2710 5082
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,86327105082# US (Germantown)
+13126266799,,86327105082# US (Chicago)
We will be showing the text on screen to make it easy to follow along. If you have a Book of Common Prayer, you may start on page 115.
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Please connect with our Daily Message on Saturday, June 13th, which is posted by 4 PM. It includes the link to our Online Sunday Service, service bulletin, link to online giving, and a NEW link for this Sunday’s Virtual Coffee Hour which will be hosted by Father Rick. There will be the link and a join code. . . no pass code needed. . .so join us!
And remember, share our posts with your friends on Facebook as well as our YouTube page.
